After our long day yesterday we really struggled to wake up this morning and only just made breakfast. They have a lot of sweet things for brekky here so we will bring the Vegemite tomorrow to go on the beautiful fresh bread. We asked the reception about a laundromat and they offered to send it out for us. For €12 we got it washed and dried and we didn't have to waste a few hours watching the machines go round. It was nice leaving it up to som...

We got hardly any sleep last night due to my stupidity. I would have had maybe 30 mins and Jac 1.5 hours. Before going to bed I loaded the map of our hotel in my iPhone to make navigating easy when we got to Istanbul. I normally do this and recheck our flight and accommodation details with plenty of time, but this time I left it until the last minute. As I loaded the map I was struggling to find the nearest railway station, so I did a distance check between the h...

Nothing much to blog about over the last few days. When midnight struck on New Years the whole city exploded in fireworks. We had never seen anything like it. Everywhere you looked in the city they were going off. Even in the streets surrounding us. It was amazing but you can see why Australia had banned their use. We didn't do anything yesterday. We didn't even leave our hotel. It was much the same today although I ducked out to an Internet cafe ...

Good news everyone. No bed bugs! It was nice sleeping in a bug free bed, although I did set the alarm for early hours so I could check the beds. I woke at 4,5 & 6 and got the torch out. I mostly checked Jacs bed just to make sure and it was a relief not to find anything. I let Jac slept until about 12pm as she needed it. The poor thing has bites all over her body and hasn't slept much for the previous few nights. She is itchy and the welts...

So here's our drama. The place we are staying is right in the heart of the city. Unfortunately it is in a very sketchy street. We have peep shows, strip clubs and brothels all around the hotel. There are scummy looking groups and lots of dodgy men hanging about in the streets. Last night we watched a fight between 4 people out our window. We have implemented an "in before dark" policy so we don't have to deal with them. During the day no probs but we won't be ven...